ST fan your Search for a new coach is over

This'll be a neat trick, per espn:

 

What to turn down our bed sheets?

 

the main difference is that those were all from the "family". LB was too old, Karl was bound by a contract. he now has a clause because of that chance. he would have been on it if he could have.

 

I'm just going about it based on vp's definition. I'm satisfied with that.

 

Too funny. You UNC fans never cease to humor me when it comes to your sports.

 

Are you still in middle/high school or are you just uneducated?

 

Forgive my lack of ACC history knowledge, but would he be the first black head coach in the history of the Big 4?

 

Wait. Sidney Lowe is black?

 

From today's Observer:

Lowe hired because of ties, not victories


IN MY OPINION
Lowe hired because of ties, not victories
SCOTT FOWLER

So let me get this straight.

Sidney Lowe has failed in two previous tries as a head coach. He's still a few weeks away from his college degree. He doesn't have one bit of collegiate coaching experience. And it took N.C. State five weeks to come up with this?

Is this what you wanted, Wolfpack fans? Is this why a significant number of you were so eager to get rid of Herb Sendek?

Listen, I have nothing personally against Lowe, who is apparently set to be announced Saturday as N.C. State's next basketball coach.

Like you, I remember Lowe mainly as a great college player. He was one of the golden ones at N.C. State, a smart guard who led Jim Valvano's 1983 Wolfpack to the national championship.

And let's give Lowe some credit. He might also be sporting a 2006 NBA championship ring within a month, as he's an assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons. By June he's supposed to have that college degree, too, from Saint Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Va.

But c'mon now.

Lowe can't play point guard for N.C. State, and he can't enroll David Thompson and Tommy Burleson to play for him, either. While the Wolfpack tries to wake up the echoes, neither Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski or North Carolina's Roy Williams are shaking in their tennis shoes today.

Lowe would never have been hired except for the fact he played at N.C. State. Never, ever.

N.C. State athletic director Lee Fowler would not have given a single glance to a man with no collegiate head-coaching experience and with a career .257 winning percentage as a head coach in the NBA -- except for the fact that Lowe performed so much 1983 magic for Valvano.

(Incidentally, Lee Fowler and I are not related. His last name does make me do a double-take sometimes, though, like when I saw the Observer headline Tuesday that read "Fowler steady amid fan discord.")

Although Wolfpack fans would have howled incessantly had Fowler hired Phil Ford -- and that was one of the many rumors floating about the past few weeks -- this is not much different. Ford has had many more off-court problems, yes, because of his struggles with alcohol. And he hasn't been an NBA head coach.

But Ford has years of experience as an assistant at the college level and achieved great success as a recruiter. Like Lowe, he's a nice guy who was once a great ACC point guard. The problem: He went to North Carolina.

I'm not saying Fowler should have hired Ford. I'm saying Ford would have been a decent sixth or seventh choice for this job. And that's basically what Lowe is -- a decent consolation prize. Winthrop's Gregg Marshall, Charlotte's Bobby Lutz or Miami's Frank Haith would have all been better than either Lowe or Ford.

Lowe will tell better stories at Wolfpack alumni gatherings than Sendek ever could. He will be great at selling the Valvano magic. He will charm reporters more than Sendek did, for no one could charm them less.

But can Lowe take N.C. State to the mountaintop? Can he do any better than Sendek's 8-38 record against Duke and North Carolina?

I'm not asking whether Lowe can finish fourth in the ACC and make the NCAA tournament. Sure, he can do that at some point. But Sendek could, too, year after year.

I'm asking, No. 1, whether Lowe and N.C. State will ever finish first in the ACC? And, No. 2, will Lowe ever get an N.C. State team to the Final Four?

My guess is he won't. If Lowe does either one of those, I will write a huge "I was wrong" column in this newspaper and make a large donation to the charity of Lowe's choice.

But I don't see that happening.

Lowe will have some first-person Final Four tales to spin, absolutely.

But they'll all be about 1983.

And, eventually, Wolfpack Nation will tire of those, too.

 

I see what Fowler is saying, but I still hate him.